Graphic by Callie Wohlgemuth ’21
BY DECLAN LANGTON ’22
Leading up to Valentine’s Day, professor of dance Charles Flachs was in his office finishing a day’s work, while his wife, professor of dance Rose Flachs was at home, feeling under the weather. Illnesses have been sweeping throughout campus this February, but despite the stress and sneezing, the professors still found time to share their love story.
The Flachs are married, and have been since before they started teaching at Mount Holyoke, so seeing each other after long days is no problem.
They have worked together since 1996 when they met at the Cincinnati Ballet Company as professional dancers. At the company, they danced together in pieces including “Giselle” and “Swan Lake.” These pieces are “notably more fun to do with your real-life partner,” Charles said.
They stayed at the company for around seven or eight years, but after that time, the couple was looking to move on. They were hoping to have another child, so Charles began searching for more flexible jobs, which led to teaching.
“In this position, it was possible to work together,” he said. “We were very happy to be able to continue that way.”
The couple splits a part-time position at Mount Holyoke College, where Charles is the chair of the Dance department. Before the Flachs came to Mount Holyoke, this role was split by a different couple.
Relics from their pre-teaching career sit in Charles’ office. Photos of the dancers together sit bathed in dramatic lighting on the bookshelf that sections the room in two. Below those photos, a reminder of the reason they came to Mount Holyoke: a photograph of their daughter in a studio in her ballet attire.
She “just retired from eight years of dancing with the Grand Rapids Ballet in Michigan,” Charles explained.
In their pedagogical careers, much of their enjoyment comes from learning from each other. “She’s really good as a teacher, she’s always been extremely interested as a dancer,” Charles said. “I can learn a lot from listening to the way she teaches, what she says, and how the class is constructed.”
“The way she deals with students, her personality is a little more easy going with that relationship,” he added.
Rose agreed, stating that, by observing each other’s teaching practices, she finds “new ways of explaining the technique and new ways to motivate students to take risks, stay mentally tough and explore musicality and their own creativity.”
For the pair, it’s all about furthering their intellect and that of their students; it is what makes their job enjoyable and interesting, with the added benefit of always working with the one they love.
Alongside teaching at Mount Holyoke, the couple also owns and manages a ballet dance studio in Holyoke, called the Massachusetts Academy of Ballet. With ambitions to keep up the rigor of their past professional life, they opened the studio 15 years ago to train dancers looking for intensity.
“The more advanced [students] are now there five or six days a week,” Charles said. “We opened the studio to train those kids as well, so that we would have the best of both worlds: the great Mount Holyoke students with their intellect and drive, and then the younger kids that we could actually train.”
Working these long hours, part time at the College and full time at their studio, the couple finds ways to unwind when they get a break. Before, when working as professionals, their lives were ruled by non-stop dance talk.
That’s how it is “when you’re a professional... there was always an ongoing discussion about what the day was like, what the choreography was like, how you were doing, what roles you were working on,” Charles explained.
Charles’ office is decorated based on his and his wife’s shared hobby: birding.
“We’re big bird watchers,” he said, suddenly more enthusiastic. Above Charles hung a calendar of birds, one of the few decorations on the bulletin board above his desk.
“My brothers were big birders, and Rose is an excellent spotter of birds, she can see the little ones floating around in the trees,” he explained. “Since I had a good camera, I started taking pictures of the birds. And then it becomes really interesting, because if you can’t identify them right away, you can go home and blow up the picture.”
Nearly everything the couple does together, outside of teaching, revolves around nature. “We’ve taken some fun family vacations, like biking over 100 miles along the Erie Canal,” Rose explained. More casually, she said they have hiked “around Muir Woods ... [and] enjoy hiking and biking around the Pioneer Valley.”
They also enjoy visiting their children, who have both recently relocated around the country, in Knoxville, Tennessee and San Francisco, California.
Rose mentions that, like everyone else, they binge Netflix shows from time to time, usually settling on “detective stories and murder mysteries.”
They do what they can to unwind from the stress of their busy lives, staying together even when not on the clock, exemplifying the beauty of being married to a life-and-work partner.